isn't fair, Len, and you say boys always are fair,' said his
sister, in a tone of protest, as she turned to her lessons once more.

Leonard tried to follow her example, but he could not fix his
attention upon problems in Euclid with that greater problem
unsolved--how the honour of the school was to be saved, and the new
boy got rid of? That was really what Taylor and one or two leading
spirits had decided must be done; but how to do it was the puzzle!

Leonard's lessons were very imperfectly prepared that night, and every
moment he could snatch the next morning was given to looking over his
books, that he might not utterly fail when he was called upon to
produce what he should have learned; and he was conning over one task
as he walked to school, when he was overtaken by Taylor and the rest.

'Oh, I say, Dabbs'--Len's nickname among his friends--'we saw that new
fellow with another carrying a basket of tools--looked like a
carpenter's basket,' said one.

'It was his brother, too, I know--looked as though he was going
wood-chopping somewhere,' said another. But Taylor slipped his arm in
Len's and drew him aside. 'Look here, what are we going to do about
it--what did your clever sister say?'

'She couldn't think of anything last night, she was too busy.'

'Oh, that's all rot you know. You said she would be sure to think of
something clever, and it's come to this--that we must do something at
once, or Torrington's will go to the dogs, with working fellows coming
here and lording it over gentlemen. The question is how are we to get
rid of him?'

'Yes, that's it. How are we? It is easy to say, get rid of him, but
the question is--how? The only thing that we can do at present that I
can see is to send him to Coventry!'

To send a boy to Coventry required united action on the part of the
whole school, but Leonard Morrison and Taylor, with one or two of
their friends, did not despair of persuading their class-mates to
follow their example. Of course the boys in the lower classes might
speak an occasional word, and the seniors in the upper form might have
occasion to do the same, but the classes in this school were large and
practically self-contained, so that they had little to do with those
in the upper or junior classes; it was therefore comparatively easy
for the leading spirits to persuade or compel the rest to follow their
lead, whatever it might be.

So the day following the talk between the brother and sister,